Annihilation
Summary
Alex Garland ’s report retirement from directing picture is disappointing for all buff of his work , but particularly bad for anyone hop for a continuation to a 2018 sci - fi horror smash . Despite only having four films in his CV , Garland has take in his status as a leading genre visionary capable of palm telling visuals and dim storytelling . While this relieve oneself his rumored retreat plans surprising , it also makes the time to come of a likely franchise he started seem more uncertain than ever .
The critically acclaimed sci - fi movie Annihilation explored complex themes that created seven major question .
Alex Garland’s Retirement Makes Annihilation 2 Even Less Likely
With Garland carry his intent to pace away from the director ’s hot seat for the " foreseeable time to come " , the prospects of audience seeing a subsequence to 2018’sAnnihilationseem progressively distant . free-base on the first installment of author Jeff VanderMeer ’s Southern Reach novel trilogy , the movie is a cerebral and visually stunning genre portmanteau word , drawing on Lovecraftian horror and complex sci - fi tradition . score an impressive 88 % on Rotten Tomatoes , the motion picture end on a tantalizing cliffhanger , withNatalie Portman ’s Lenateasing the next stage of human evolution and the full transformation of the Earth .
However , despite the intriguing narrative electric potential of the chronicle , Garland ’s program seem to put a unwavering dent in any outlook ofAnnihilation 2 . Although the original narrative is intriguing , it was Alex Garland ’s steering , building off his succeeder withEx Machina , that really made the movie stand out . The moving-picture show ’s eery tone combined the mutative power of The Shimmer with a subtle story of human curiosity and discovery – a delicate balancing act that played to Garland ’s power to research ambiguity . Considering that he also write the movie , it ’s difficult to see how a subsequence would work without his involvement , given his outsized influence .
Why Annihilation 2 Still Hasn’t Happened
reckon the broader context ofthe Southern Reach trilogy , the fact thatAnnihilation 2never happened is jolly surprising . The storey – thanks in no small part to the source material – seemed absolutely set up for a subsequence . Just as VanderMeer ’s novels separate the wider narrative into several installments , Annihilationonly deal with what bump when man first strike the mysterious Shimmer – laying the groundwork for the picture show ’s many mysteries to be explored in next entranceway . In some ways , it seems a double-dyed candidate for franchisement , with its streaming liberation insulate it from box office insistence .
Part of the reason thatAnnihilationfailed to live up to its franchise potentiality is that Garland himself seemed ab initio disinterested in revisit the level . Even thoughVanderMeer ’s other books on the face of it provide the staring templatefor how the narrative could be expanded , Garland quickly distance himself from an imminentAnnihilationsequel . In a 2018 audience withIndieWire , the British - born director explain :
“ When the thing is done , I am done with it . I instantly start out moving on , so I do n’t even have an belief on an Annihilation subsequence . All the way through I was clear with everyone , from the studio apartment to the stamp , I told everyone that I did n’t really see it as part of a franchise .
" My goal was to make this film and do the effective chore I can . I did n’t even gestate it as the start of a trilogy . sequel are just not something I ’m interested in doing . It ’s like when you do n’t like steak , you do n’t make the decision not to eat steak , you just do n’t eat steak . I just do n’t do continuation . ”
It ’s also untrue that Alex Garland never returns to previous project . Despite not take , he was an uncredited writer on28 Weeks Later , having write Danny Boyle ’s original living dead horror , and will be returning as a writer for28 days Later . This suggest that , if enough time passes , Garland can indeed give to earlier write up – which in turning suggest thatAnnihilation 2was never really off the table . Had he not decided to retire from direct completely , there was always the opening that he could return .
Annihilation leave the fortune of Tessa Thompson ’s Josie somewhat ambiguous , though it heavy imply she becomes one of the " Shimmer ’s " human tree .
Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury
Annihilation 2 Without Alex Garland Wouldn’t Be As Good
Despite his obvious initial antipathy towards the idea ofAnnihilation 2 , there ’s little doubt that any sequel would not have worked as well without him . Hallmarks of Alex Garland ’s directorial style are observable throughout the movie , from the story ’s measured pacing to the framing of certain group shots to give characters immediacy and intimacy . While the public of The Shimmer is needfully weird , Garland also made it experience believable – an impressive feat consider thetrippy quality of the sci - fi movie .
The unique visual expressive style on presentation inAnnihilationmeans thatany other music director would face an incredibly unmanageable labor to make the subsequence sense like part of the same account . In many respects , patch details like The Shimmer , Area X , and the lighthouse are less crucial thanAnnihilation ’s unsettling and mysterious pure tone – something that ’s much more unmanageable to capture with a different director . Though there are doubtlessly different direction of exploringAnnihilation ’s broader themes , Alex Garland ’s approach made the movie stand up out in a concentrated sci - fi market .
Annihilation 2 Can Still Work, Even Without Alex Garland
Director Alex Garland returns to mellow - concept sci - fi with Annihilation . We search what pass off in the ending and what it means for the Shimmer .
In some ways , the different options ofAnnihilation ’s sequels think that a director other than Garland could be even better suited to the story . Where Garland was able to perfectly capture The Shimmer ’s curiousness , a story gear up beyond Area X might call for a dissimilar feeler , suggesting that his liaison is n’t completely necessary . While such a change would makeAnnihilation 2feel very different from the original , Alex Garland ’s absence seizure may yet represent an chance to someone else to at long last realise the film ’s dealership potential .
Sources : IndieWire , The Guardian
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